How Can You Use CloudTrail for the First Time in Your AWS Account?

Problem scenario
You want to log or monitor AWS activity (e.g., AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, and/or AWS SDK actions). You do not want encryption because you are just testing it out. How do you use CloudTrail to do this?

Solution

1. Log into AWS.
2. Go to this link: https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/
3. Click "Create a trail"
4. Enter a descriptive name for your trail.
5. Click "Create trail"
6. Do some operations in AWS (e.g., create an EC-2 instance).
7. Go here: https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/
8. Click on "Event history"
9. Click the "30m" or "1h" to filter the events.

(We recommend using encryption for production uses. The above is just for a proof-of-concept.)